America’s Suez Crisis Moment
The USA is having a Saturn Opposition and Uranus Return together. So was Britain in 1956.
Some historical context…
In July 1956, the President of Egypt (Nasser) nationalized the Suez Canal and put a toll on it. Britain and France used it for two-thirds of their oil and were furious. They conspired with Israel to invade the Sinai on October 29, 1956.
They achieved a military victory easily, but the international outcry and aftermath was a humiliating death knell for the British empire.
Under massive international pressure (especially economic threats from the US that risked crashing the British pound), Britain agreed to a ceasefire at midnight on November 6.
This short war shifted the entire map of global politics. It was clear that the US and USSR were in charge of the world now, not Britain. It was also a win for Arab nationalism and anti-colonial movements. Egypt had won politically even though it lost militarily.
The parallels to current events are eery:
a hubristic invasion of a Middle East country, with Israel providing pretext
a global maritime chokepoint for oil and other trade
an aging empire with the world reserve currency going to war against a militarily weaker opponent who controls access to said chokepoint
The Suez Crisis was the event that definitively ended British imperial hegemony. It was the moment the world (and Britain itself) realized it could no longer act as a unilateral global power. The US called their bluff, Eisenhower threatened to crash the pound, and Britain had to withdraw from Egypt with its tail between its legs. The Sun had finally set on the British Empire.
And the Suez Crisis killed the pound’s status as the reserve currency.
History is rhyming
Right now, the US is approaching a Saturn Opposition and it will start its Uranus Return as soon as Uranus goes into Gemini at the end of the month (April 25, 2026). These are major transits.
I was floored to see that the Suez Crisis happened as the UK was approaching this exact same pair of major transits.
(There are several charts that could be used for the UK and Britain—this is the chart for the Act of Union that united England and Scotland and created the United Kingdom.)
What will the Uranus Returns mean for the US?
Uranus has an 84 year cycle, so people don’t always get to their Uranus Return.
But countries have them repeatedly.
The first Uranus Return for the USA was in 1860-1861. The Civil War started April 12, 1861.
The second Uranus Return for the USA was May 30th, 1944, during WWII. D-Day was June 6, 1944.
Our third will be exact July 26, 2027, Nov 5 2027, and May 11, 2028.
Every time the US has a Uranus return, the country faces an existential question about what it actually is—and the answer comes through a massive, violent rupture that redefines the nation’s identity and its role in the world.
Our first Uranus return asked: Is the founding promise of liberty real or was it always a lie built on slavery? The answer came through the most destructive conflict in American history. The country that emerged was different constitutional entity—the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments established equal protection under the law and the right to vote (guarantees that Trump is currently trying to dismantle).
Our second Uranus return asked: Are we an isolationist republic or a global power? The answer came through D-Day and the subsequent construction of the postwar order—Bretton Woods, the UN, NATO, the Marshall Plan, and the dollar as reserve currency. The country that emerged from WWII was fundamentally different. It was a superpower and the architect of the global system (the same global system Trump is currently ripping apart).
Each time Uranus returned, the country was fundamentally reconstituted.
This time, the question is: what happens to the American empire?
The third return is completing the cycle that began in 1944. The postwar order—Pax Americana, dollar hegemony, NATO—centers the US as the architect and arbiter of Western power. Whatever emerges from the next few years will be fundamentally different.
The center will not hold.
Uranus doesn’t reform—it breaks and remakes.
Trump has Uranus conjunct his Sun in his natal chart—both in Gemini. A lot of the current admin actually have Sun-Uranus aspects—both Vance and Rubio have them in a trine.
It’s not surprising to see people in positions of national leadership having aspects between their Sun and the transpersonal planets. But it is interesting to me how many of them are Uranian. It appears that their role in the plotline of the unfolding Universe is to be Uranian figures that usher in the destruction of American hegemony so something new can emerge.
What about our Saturn Opposition?
Saturn Oppositions to a natal chart occur every 27 years. The US’s next will be exact on Mar 15, 2027 (and building until then).
Saturn Oppositions for humans are about getting real with ourselves. It’s a point where the tension between who you have been and the future you want can no longer be ignored. It prompts a restructuring, reprioritization, and renegotiating of commitments. It often involves stress-tests that reveal what is sturdy and what is not.
Given the position America is in, this feels like being forced to reckon with the limits of our power and the limits of our allies patience.
Saturn in Libra is exalted in the Sibly chart—America has been seen as the provider and guarantor of global security and stability for three-quarters of a century. But the recklessness of Saturn in Aries is testing that.
The point of America being the global policemen and having military bases all over the world was to guarantee the safety and freedom of commerce and trade. We are doing exactly the opposite now—we are responsible for the largest-ever supply disruption of oil in history, as well as a supply shock to many other ingredients essential to civilization that I discussed in my last post.
These shortages will be felt all over the world even if the war stopped today (and as I write this, it hasn’t). As shortages of food, energy, industrial ingredients, and chips ripple through the world’s population, there really won’t be anyone else to blame but Trump and the people who elected him.
So where will people look for the “adults in the room”? Whoever seems trustworthy and stable. Europe and China are the most obvious beneficiaries. Our self-destruction will provide opportunities for others to step up.
What does this all add up to?
The end of an era. A chaotic breakdown of global norms, a rapid restructuring of power, and the end of US centrality and dominance of the world order.
Power never relinquishes itself voluntarily—it’s far more common for it to seed its own undoing through hubris and excess. Britain managed the collapse of its empire and being put out to pasture fairly well. America has a more dramatic character, and there is no indication our Mad King can handle humiliation or comeuppance with anything approaching grace. So it will undoubtedly be messy and painful.
What will the new order look like?
I don’t know—Uranus by definition takes us somewhere we’ve never been. We have to go through the process to get there and see who we become.
But ingress charts can give us clues to the cycle ahead. Here is the ingress chart of Uranus into Gemini with the US chart.
This ingress makes a lot of exact (<1°) hits to the US chart:
Saturn is exactly sextile our Uranus
The Sun is exactly sextile our Jupiter
Chiron is exactly square our Pluto
There is an exact mundane transit of Sun square Pluto
Pluto is conjunct our South Node, with the Sun squaring it.
What this suggests to me is that the promise of the American Dream (Sun-Jupiter) is still there, but we need a fundamental restructuring (Saturn-Uranus) to make that a reality because the structure we are in is no longer fit for purpose. On top of that, this era will bring the death or transformation of leaders and leadership (Sun square Pluto). It will be a painful, and the only way out is through (Pluto-Chiron).
Astrology just reflects reality, and points out connections. Anyone paying attention to domestic and global politics can already see the cracks in the American empire. This is just the Universe reflecting back with undeniable precision that the time of change is upon us. It’s up to us what we do with it.